


Shadowbun: Lying Doggo

by JackFields



Series: T3 Shadowbun stories [2]
Category: Shadowrun, Zootopia (2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-15
Updated: 2016-09-15
Packaged: 2018-08-15 05:37:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8044429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackFields/pseuds/JackFields
Summary: Hello all, I created this as part of the /trash/ Thematic Thursday event, and as such it's formatted as a greentext.  Hope that it's not too distracting.  This fortnight's theme was species-specific customs, which is a little tricky with this sort of crossover.A bit of a note on race/species, in regular Shadowrun all metahumans are considered to be (basically) the same species, where the meta-type is the new stand in for race.  To quote Sir Terry Pratchett;"Racism was not a problem on the Discworld, because - what with trolls and dwarfs and so on - speciesism was more interesting. Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green."So when you cross that with Zootopia, which has it's own complicated metaphor for race, things get a little messy.  Nikko is an Elf and a fox, normally a predator, he now lives as an obligate herbivore.  But he's still a fox, and has his foxy instincts/stereotypical behaviors.  Judy, on the other hand, was born as an Ork, so she became omnivorous.  She's still the same good-natured bunny, but with twice as much muscle mass and a new instinct to crack heads first and ask questions later.  Some Goblinized members of the prey races even become complete carnivores, and sometimes they aren't so picky about where the meat comes from...So there you have it, you can have a species-specific custom, or a race-specific custom, and some times they cross over each other.





	Shadowbun: Lying Doggo

>Deep in the forest, hundreds of kilometers from Zootopia, there was a drainage pipe. It had frequently provided shelter to animals of the forest, and it was no different this night. However, the animals in question generally didn't peer out from its shadowy depth with green glowing cyber-eyes.  
>Nikko and his team hadn't intended for this job to become so dangerous, but as usually happened for shadowrunners, things had gotten out of hand. The plan had been pretty simple when they worked it out. Finn had needed a few thousand nuyen worth of Laurus nobilis lambtoni (Mana Laurel) and being perpetually broke he had traded a favor with a talismonger in the city. The crew would take the train out to Westburrow, meet up with the talismonger's supplier, and they could buy wholesale.  
>They had left Money Badger, the fourth team member, back in town and headed up into the hills on foot. Everything had been running five-by-five; they had arrived at the "greenhouse" a little after sunset. It was in an abandoned UCAS missile silo, which Nikko had thought made a certain amount of sense, once he had seen the value of the crops inside. Spellcraft plants were one thing, but Nikko knew Macrocystis pyrifera novus (Deepweed) and Erythroxylum coca (Coca leaf) when he saw it.  
>Cormack, the twitchy ram who ran the grow op had just finished sealing Finn's laurel leaves into a hard plastic carrying case when a terrific crash resounded though the building, the door burst inwards and the first security forces coming through, guns drawn. Cormack had panicked and run deeper into the facility, Nikko and his team had scrabbled after him, stopping only to quickly barricade a door behind them with barrels of fertilizer.  
>If the ram had run this way, he must have a secret escape route planned out, hopefully one that Finn could fit through. Deep in the base, they came to it, a rusty hatch covering a swiftly running aqueduct. They held their breath and jumped in to the dark water.

\----

>And now here they were here in the culvert, hiding while the security forces combed the woods looking for them.  
>After near-drowning in the swiftly flowing water, the three had spewed forth into a larger chamber where two water courses converged in a large cistern. Dim light filled the ferro-crete structure, coming from another tunnel near the ceiling.  
>Clambering out of the swirling reservoir, the team had climbed a ladder cast into the wall and found an overflow drain covered with a rusted iron grate.  
>No sign of Cormack, Nikko wondered if the ram had drowned somewhere in the depths of the flooded tunnels, or maybe been swept along a different path?  
>Finn and Judy had worked together to pry two of the bars apart, Finn left the case and his sodden clothing with Nikko and Judy, while he squeezed out through the gap. Calling on his magic to become invisible, he slipped away into the undergrowth to go for help. Unable to follow, Nikko and Judy had hunkered down in the pipe and prepared to wait for his return.  
>Nikko had sat watching at the edge of the pipe until Judy, hearing an approaching reconnaissance drone, had dragged him back into its depths. Not wanting to risk a second pass, he had joined her deeper in the tunnel where she sat in the darkness.  
>"Well here's another fine mess he's gotten me into" Nikko quipped, as he sat across from Judy in the tunnel. She just grunted in response.  
>"I told you this was a bad idea. Knew it was a bad idea from the get go. Now I'm all wet."  
>"Good idea, but incomplete plan, I think. Sorry, what was that about being all wet?"  
>Judy had shifted where she sat, trying to find a more comfortable position on the hard floor. "I'm all wet. Rabbits don't like to get wet."  
>Nikko had boggled at her, "And the several dozen armed mammals outside in the woods are just not worth mentioning?"  
>Judy had shrugged, "They're out there. I'm in here. It'd be fine if I wasn't soaking wet. It's a rabbit thing."

\----

>"A rabbit thing? Like as in the ancient days, predator and prey, red in tooth and claw?"  
>"Well I don't fucking know how else to explain it! I hate being wet. My brothers and sisters all hate being wet. My mom and my granny hate being wet. If he wasn't six feet under my dad would hate being wet."  
>She looked at Nikko reproachfully, "You know I clean up if I have to for the job, but I bet you didn't know I usually just scrub down with a washcloth?"  
>Having a fox's keen nose, Nikko had been unfortunate enough to have noticed this. "Huh, well I had just thought it was an Ork thing." Wrong thing to say, Judy was now staring daggers at him. Quickly he moved to change the subject.  
>"So I guess this is like a bombproofed rabbit warren to you? Must remind you of home? I mean, not that you grew up in a sewer pipe, oh, Judy, I'm sorry, I'm just going to shut up now." Nikko spluttered and pulled himself into a cringing ball, tail pulled over his face to hide his embarrassment.  
>Judy sniffed and asked "Do I make you nervous? It seems like you say something offensive every time we have a conversation. You never say anything like that to the Johnsons, or to other runners, just me."  
>"I don't know, Judy, I really don't. When I talk to other mammals it's just a job, you know? I pull wool over their eyes and get us what we need; it's not like talking to you."  
>"And yes, you do sort of make me nervous, any sane mammal would get nervous talking to a vat-job runner. I've seen you take down a rhino bare-handed, for the Lamb's sake!"  
>Judy grinned at him in the semi-darkness, flashing her tusks at him as she asked "And these puppies probably don't help things, do they? Must be awkward to be a pred who's got no fangs."  
>Nikko ran his tongue over his so-called canine teeth, feeling the small rounded points that were part of his Elven heritage. "No kidding. Growing up as the only herbivore in a pred family was awkward, to say the least..."

\----

>Judy was silent for a while, mulling that over. "The world says that foxes are sneaky and dangerous preds, 'Shut the doors and check the locks. Here comes the big bad fox' and all that?" And here you are, all 25 kilos of you, you're skinny as a weasel and about as strong as one. No offense..."  
>Nikko sighed wordlessly, thinking of bullies in the playground, roided up go-gangers in bars, corporate security goons who used cruelty as an escape from the monotony of their posts.  
>"You ever think what it might be like to have all your instincts telling you to go for the jugular, and knowing that if you try it all you'll end up doing is giving them a hickey? I never asked to be born an Elf; it's separated me from everyone else I knew for as long as I can remember."  
>"It's no picnic being an Ork, you know." Judy interjected. "But I see what you mean; at least my whole family is Orkish, more or less." She shivered as the underground chill of the cistern crept into her body, her short and coarse fur was nowhere near as insulating as Nikko's longer pelt.  
>Nikko saw her discomfort at the cold, and lifting his arm he indicated for her to sit next to him. He had been wearing a much lighter outfit, and the water had quickly dried from the synthetic fiber, while Judy's armored clothing was still clammy and damp.  
>She shrugged out of her heavy jacket, and sat down next to him, pulling his arm over her shoulder and leaning hard into his chest, trying to get closer to the warmth of his body. Nikko wrapped his tail over and around her, and quietly said "You also make me nervous because I like you. You know, LIKE like you."  
>Judy smiled to herself and gave him a rib-creaking bear hug. "Be careful what you say there Nikko, I might just take you as my foxy little elf toy." Curled together, they drifted off to sleep as the night dragged on. The guards might be outside, but they would never come looking for them in here.

\----

>Judy woke slowly, feeling something pressed against her face, smelling something strong and bitter. With a reflexive grab and wrench she tried to break the hold of whoever was trying to strangle her, or maybe poison her as she slept!  
>She was momentarily paralyzed as a high pitched squawk went off in her ear, and she felt the limb in her hand spasm and jerk free from her grasp. She made a grab for its wrist, but there was no wrist, just a slender flexible limb covered in long fur. 'Wait a second' her mind raced, 'Long fur? Was that Nikko's...?’  
>"The hell was that for?!?" Nikko hissed at her, his cyber-eyes glowing softly as he switched to darkvision mode. "You just get bored and decide to twist my tail off?"  
>"Keep it down, Nikko, I'm sorry for that. I woke up and something was pressed into my face, I just panicked. Didn't mean anything by it." Judy felt chagrin spread over her face, this was not the time for amateur hijinks.  
>Nikko flexed his tail slowly back and forth, trying to see if anything more severe than a strained tendon was present. Didn't seem to be, as he pulled it into his lap and started to gently massage it. "Can't say I've ever had that happen before. You never curl up under your tail when you're sleeping rough somewhere?"  
>Judy gave him a level look and asked "My tail?" She twisted around to wiggle her backside at him, with its four inch tuft of grey fur.  
>Nikko's jaw dropped, he was momentarily lost for words. "Right, of course, that was a silly question. It's a fox thing, guess I just assumed..."  
>They both froze as they heard a crackle of static from the outer side of the drainage pipe. Then a gruff voice "Command, Tango four, thought I just heard something from one of the primary cisterns. Requesting permission to check it out." A muffled response. "Uh huh. Let you know."

\----

>Judy never lost her cool, making a hand sign to Nikko to retreat back down into the depths of the culvert. She reached down and picked up her armored jacket, careful not to make a sound as she felt for the concealed spray canister of Pepper Punch. The train security monitors might have found anything bigger, but she wished that she had tried for something else, even a good knife.  
>Nikko was all the way back down the tunnel, crouched on the concrete ladder, only his eyes visible over the concrete lip. His darkvision module showed the false color illumination of an infrared searchlight, bobbing back and forth at the entrance as the guard approached. He was a big bastard, a buck deer or maybe an elk, carrying what looked like a Remington 990.  
>Judy had ducked under her coat, crouching low against the tunnel wall and hoping that the matte black cloth would conceal her, making her look like a bit of debris that had been trapped in the outflow. She fingered the spray button on the canister as she listened intently, trying to visualize the guard's position by the sounds he was making.  
>Nikko peered down the tunnel, studying the security officer as he crawled on all fours into the pipe. The infrared illuminator he held in one hand dazzled Nikko, but that was good, meant that the guard probably wasn't cyber-augmented, instead probably wearing a pair of glasses with cheap monochrome darkvision. He was all the way into the pipe now, crawling on hands and knees, shotgun clutched in his off hand.  
>Judy sweated under her jacket as she heard the guard fumbling with something. She had natural low-light vision, so wouldn't be fighting blind, but she would have to break her cover to spring onto him. What was he doing now?  
>She heard a rustle of fabric, and then a clack as the shotgun was set down. A moment later she heard a mumbled "Son of a...", and knew that he must be examining the bent bars. It was go time!

\----

>Nikko didn't even see Judy start to move, she was suddenly a blur of motion as she flung the heavy coat aside and threw herself at the bars, spray can at the ready. The security goon was taken completely by surprise, his attention suddenly drawn to the blur of motion; he took a full blast of chemical spray in the face. Judy didn't stop to give him another blast, but immediately launched herself through the gap in the bars and started to pummel him.  
>Nikko scrabbled up the ladder and ran to help her, he knew that his strength wouldn't count for much in the brutal struggle, but maybe he could get the shotgun or the guard's radio away from him. The infrared flashlight strobed back and forth in the tunnel, illuminating flashes of the brutal struggle between Judy and her much larger opponent. He dodged a swinging fist, and then threw himself down over the big shotgun as the guard scrabbled for it.  
>Judy's eyes were starting to burn as she got a secondary dose of pepper spray, but she kept fighting, hammering away with elbows, knees, anything that she could bring to bear against the big guard. Nikko was behind her, trying to do something with the shotgun, Lion forbid that he try to fire it into the chaotic melee.  
>She had just scrabbled onto the guard's shoulders, and was prepared to deliver a powerful kick to the back of his head, when she and the guard were jerked backwards, completely out of the drain! Clinging to his shoulders, she saw the world swing past her face, and felt a sickening crunch as his body slammed into a nearby pine tree.  
>Dazed, she fell to the ground, the guard's lifeless body falling across her chest. Looking upwards she saw an immense silhouette, four curved horns surrounding a tusked face, eyes glowing with a hellish red light.  
>She tried to scrabble upright, tried to find the Pepper Punch, but everything was moving so slowly, she felt a detached resignation as the hell-beast's trunk reached out towards her...

\----

>Judy came to with a jerk, eyes snapping open, expecting to find herself in Hell, or even worse, a detention cell. Instead, she was propped up against Finn's plastic case. Nikko was by her side, pressing a damp handkerchief to her split eyebrow. "Easy, easy, it's all over, the cavalry arrived just in time..." he soothed as he ministered to her cuts.  
>Finn's came in to view behind Nikko, a wide grin splitting the Troll's face as he grunted "Good thing you wasn't on the other side of 'dat fella when Hathi smash him up. You OK, Carrots?"  
>"Fine, fine" she winced as Nikko started working on a wide abrasion on her scalp, "Who's Hathi?"  
>Finn jerked a thumb to his left, where the enormous troll sat; Judy had to stifle a gasp as she saw the enormous metamammal. Four meters high, Hathi was the first Troll elephant that Judy had ever seen. No wonder that he had been able to swing the guard around like a doll. The crumpled body lay beside Hathi, Judy was a little sickened to note that it appeared to have been gnawed on.  
>Hathi waved the tip of his trunk at Judy where she sat, a shy grin lighting up his face as he said "Sorry I almost kill you, Missus" in a remarkably soft voice. "Finn, you never say that you have a bunny on your team?"  
>"It never come up!" Finn protested. Turning to Nikko Finn had explained that after racing back to town, stopping to borrow a pair of pants from a backyard laundry line, he had found Money and together they had worked out a rescue plan. Finn knew a few trolls who made their homes in the wilderness, and with Money's help to hot-wire a delivery truck, they had gone off to find some additional muscle.  
>"And Hathi agreed to help you? Even though you've never met before tonight?" she demanded.  
>"Dat's right. Trolls stick together, that's 'da rule. Troll thing..." Finn had confirmed, before glancing back to Nikko and admitting "Of course, now I owes him a favor..."

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all, I created this as part of the /trash/ Thematic Thursday event, and as such it's formatted as a greentext. Hope that it's not too distracting. This fortnight's theme was species-specific customs, which is a little tricky with this sort of crossover.
> 
> A bit of a note on race/species, in regular Shadowrun all metahumans are considered to be (basically) the same species, where the meta-type is the new stand in for race. To quote Sir Terry Pratchett;
> 
> "Racism was not a problem on the Discworld, because - what with trolls and dwarfs and so on - speciesism was more interesting. Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green."
> 
> So when you cross that with Zootopia, which has it's own complicated metaphor for race, things get a little messy. Nikko is an Elf and a fox, normally a predator, he now lives as an obligate herbivore. But he's still a fox, and has his foxy instincts/stereotypical behaviors. Judy, on the other hand, was born as an Ork, so she became omnivorous. She's still the same good-natured bunny, but with twice as much muscle mass and a new instinct to crack heads first and ask questions later. Some Goblinized members of the prey races even become complete carnivores, and sometimes they aren't so picky about where the meat comes from...
> 
> So there you have it, you can have a species-specific custom, or a race-specific custom, and some times they cross over each other.


End file.
